Tag Archives: correspondent child

First, the good news: I found little Kevin as my newest Compassion correspondent on Thursday evening! Kevin is 5 and from La Paz, Bolivia, the capital city and also where Elvis lives. He’s giving a signature Bolvian photo pose: the thumbs up!

In sad but also happy news, I lost my correspondent Beto from Ethiopia last week. While I never received any letters from him yet, as soon I receive any new child, I start loving them and praying for them immediately, so it still is sad and a loss. However, I’m glad that it happened for a good reason- his sponsor decided to write to him! I hope that they have a great relationship and that my letters had words that Beto needed to hear for the couple months that I was able to write to him.

If I could ask for prayers, I have a decision to make between either traveling with Manna 4 Lempira to Honduras this summer or traveling with Compassion to El Salvador. It’s so hard, because I’d love to do both, ideally, but I don’t have the funds for that. I’m praying for a clear direction on which trip I’m most needed on.

Yesterday, I was very excited to see a new face when I checked my Compassion account! This is 7 year old Rukundo. He is my 3rd child in Rwanda since January, but I’ve had a great experience with the country already and have been amazed at how quickly I got letters from Jabes and Clemence. So I’m very excited to send some love to Rukundo too, who hasn’t received any letters or gifts in the 3 years he’s been in the program.

Rukundo means love in Swahili! ❤

His big eyes in the first photo are so sweet and I love his sweater in his current photo!

On Thursday I found a new face on my Compassion account: 13 year old Dickson! Dickson is from Ghana, a country I have had several students from, including 2 this year, so I’ve gotten to know, teach, and love quite a few Ghanan kids! My sponsored child Oxford also lives there.

Dickson has been in the program since 2009, and he has had only one sponsor, who has sponsored him since 2010. That’s a real commitment! Dickson was assigned a correspondent right away, but unfortunately the previous correspondent never sent him a letter. I’m so glad that God decided to put him in my path as my newest correspondent, though, because I will be sending him lots of letters and love and encouragement! It’s sad to think of a child going through the program for over 8 years, watching friends receiving letters but never receiving one himself. I’m so grateful to be a correspondent and get to change that for children!

On Tuesday, I found a new face on my Compassion account from a country that I’ve never had a child from before. Meet Daniel from Togo!

Daniel is 7 years old and looks like he has a very kind and gentle demeanor based on his photo. He’s never received a letter in the year and 3 months since he’s been registered. I’m excited to learn more about the interesting country of Togo, too!

My week last week took an unexpected turn. Over the weekend, I had not been feeling well. I had a sore throat, headache, dizzy spells, stomachache, fatigue… my symptoms were all over the place. On Monday, I was feeling worse and I barely made it through work. I hate taking sick days and not being there for my students, but I knew I needed to take one to rest up and hopefully feel much better. I was also coming down with a fever. I wasn’t big on the idea of going to the doctor, since I figured I had the flu and they wouldn’t be able to do anything for me. But as my symptoms progressed even more on Tuesday and new ones appeared, I decided to go to urgent care. I was shocked to find out I had strep throat, scarlet fever, a sinus infection, and a peritonsillar abscess. Here I thought I’d regret going, but everything I had needed to be treated by antibiotics, so I’m so grateful I did. Even the doctor said she was glad I went in. I haven’t had strep since I was a kid, never had scarlet fever, and never even heard of a peritonsillar abscess…

So just like that, my week changed and I had to stay home Wednesday and Thursday too. When I let my boss know, she told me to also take Friday off. I figured I’d definitely be better by Friday with the antibiotics and steroids, but I agreed. I was told to come back to urgent care Wednesday for a recheck of my tonsil. It still was the same, so then I was told to come back again on Friday for another recheck. By then, I could feel the strep/scarlet fever and sinus infection were getting better. However that tonsil and the side of my neck it was on were still swollen and I wasn’t sure if it would have to be aspirated. When I went back for the second recheck on Friday, I was told I’ll have to come back again on Sunday (today). They want to make sure it’s going down and not staying the same or it will have to be aspirated.

All these days stuck on the couch and in bed sick, with little motivation to do anything, had me checking Compassion’s website quite a bit, hoping to see a new correspondent. Finally on Thursday evening, there was beautiful Nafula Faith from Uganda, a country that has become very near and dear to my heart.

Feeling discouraged and worried about this potentially serious abscess, God reminded me to have Faith! 😉

Faith is 14 and lives a little outside the capital city of Kampala. I’m thrilled to have a new teen girl to write to.

Last week, Edwige became my second beautiful girl from Burkina Faso, a country that is still very new to me.

Here are her previous and current photos. Edwige is 7, just like my other girl from BF, Latifatou. Her birthday is extra special, because it’s the same as my grandmother’s who passed away a year ago in October. She’s now my second child to share that birthday, as I previously sponsored Oxford in my grandmother’s honor. Edwige feels like a little gift from my grandmother, telling me she’s looking out for me.

She helps her family with cleaning and running errands, and her hobbies include listening to Bible stories, playing games, hide and seek, and soccer. The Child Development Center information says that none of the children there are attending school because they are all too young. I don’t know how often that is updated, though, and 7 seems old enough to start school, so hopefully she will soon if she’s not currently enrolled. Most adults in the community earn only $10 per month.

On Wednesday evening, I received another new correspondent from the Dominican Republic, but this time he is from a different center than my other two from the same country. His face is solemn in the photo, but he’s adorable, and I hope that some day I’ll see a smile from him!

Jorge is 6 years old. He helps his family with running errands and his favorite hobbies are art and dolls. I’m not sure if he’s in school yet, because it’s listed as “other”. If not, hopefully he will be enrolled soon! He looks so tiny because of the perspective that the photo was taken. The funny thing is that I’ve noticed that I’ve been assigned much more children as correspondents at age 6 than any other age!